Early Spring Update

As I mentioned in yesterday's Bloom Day blog, we've been getting some wet and cold weather. Being unable to play in the garden, and uninspired to paint, I've finally decided that this would be a prime time to report on the bees.

Back in August, I was fussing about new queens. The one home-grown queen from the original hive had been replaced in a coup by one of the Minnesota Hygenics. Considering that Minnesota has a lot of Scandanavian blood, she wound up being named Freyja. To date, she's doing pretty well.

My swarm queen Isolde appeared to do well, so she remained on her throne. The second Minnesota queen found a home with another beek. Unfortunately, it appears that Isolde didn't mate all that well, and her colony is the weakest. It's not pitiful, but her hive's population is about 60 or 70% of the other three. Unless her numbers improve this spring, I think that another coup is in order when queens are again available.


For three weeks in the fall, I was off in New Zealand, missing some prime varroa mite control time. When I returned and inspected hives, I found that mite populations were building. I dusted with powdered sugar for many weeks, and seemed to get the mites under control. But after giving the bees (and mites) another break of a few weeks, I found that the mites were still going strong. Since mid-January, the weather has not been very good for opening hives, and I am nervous for my girls. There have been many dead brood on the landing boards, probably killed by mites feeding off them.

Even with their mite woes, I see a lot of bees flying about whenever there is a break in the weather. Often they are out when I think that they'd be snuggled up in the hive. There are a lot of plump pollen baskets coming in. On my most recent inspections, I saw a fair bit of new nectar in storage. So there's still hope for my girls.